Screening Room: The horror!

I’ve been thinking about how to properly follow up this series after its first entry, which could’ve easily been mistaken for my contribution to the Contemplative Cinema Blog-a-Thon. For a creative mind, there’s nothing more dangerous than to be pigeon-holed too early. Brace yourselves, then, for a 180 degree turn as I take you to the dark side of my filmmaking spectrum…

Below is a trailer I’ve edited for Universal Pictures to promote a range of budget horror DVD-titles (how low can you go, right?). The coolest thing about this project is that it was a truly no-holds-barred affair, since the company intended to show the trailer before screenings at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. Once they gave me their list of titles, the client pretty much gave me carte blanche, as long as I made sure that the end result would appeal to a pack of raving gorehounds. Ha! Say no more! They didn’t even blink when I suggested music from bands like Rammstein or Sepultura (I ended up with a mix of Christopher Young’s soundtrack for Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Rammstein and Soulfly). For an editing assignment, that’s about as good as it gets.

Lemme tell ya: For the next three days, my colleagues didn’t dare to enter the editing suite. Hell was empty, and all the devils were here…

But enough talk. Gorehounds rejoice! Crank up the volume and grab hold of your chair. WE – HAVE – SUCH – SIGHTS – TO – SHOW – YOU!

(By the way, folks: be sure to check back tomorrow for another Negative Space cartoon. Yes, that’s right: That means I’m getting the hang of it!)

Whoa, Peet! Great work! I love the Barry Convex line over Universal Studios logo: “What about the other reasons?” A perfect lead-in! And of course the SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW finish was great too! Any chance this will lead to more work like this? Or just more work?! You’re obviously an immensely talented editor and director, and I’d really like to see what else is in the bag!

My personal favorite of those titles is Bernard Rose’s lyrical urban nightmare Candyman, by the way. And I remember being really frustrated about not having more footage of An American Wherewolf in London.

Dennis: I’ve done lots of trailers and compilations for the home video department of Universal Pictures, as well as numerous DVD commercials and mood promos for different TV channels. I may post some others in the future. This one was done in 2003 or so. We’ve lost Universal as a client since then (different folks, different connections), but to be honest, I think I’ve had my share of trailers.